


Player vs. Sans

by InvisibleLee



Series: Undertale Shorts [1]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Genocide Sans, Reader-Insert, Spoilers - Undertale Genocide Route
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-26
Updated: 2016-09-26
Packaged: 2018-08-17 12:01:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8143087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InvisibleLee/pseuds/InvisibleLee
Summary: Everyone asks you why you did it. How you did it. How you could be so cruel.You always say, "Because it's not real" or that you're naturally heartless.But what no one knows is that you feel utterly horrible about it.And you finally say so.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [littleberd](https://archiveofourown.org/users/littleberd/gifts).



You open your eyes with a gasp.

Where are you? Your laptop is gone, your bedroom gone with it. You’re looking at something shiny, glowing gold. You run your hand over it, and you take note of how warm it feels against your palm, oddly comforting.

Looking around you, you realise that you’re in some sort of hallway, long and the walls lined with windows. It seems so familiar, the yellow of the walls, the shadows cast by pillars, the quiet of the room. You walk slowly forward, a strange feeling growing as you go; something you feel might be dread, but you can’t pinpoint the reason. You notice, absent and uncaringly, that you grip a shiny knife tightly in one hand.

Suddenly, you hear a faint _pop_ , and you stop in your tracks as memories flood through you, revealing things to you. You know why this room is familiar, why the pleasant glow is there, why you feel dreading of some moment, and why you hold the knife.

You are covered in dust as he stands before you, coated in shadow, his form unmistakable.

_Sans._

His stare is intense, not a glare but still intimidating in his manner. His right eye – or perhaps his left, you are facing him, after all – glows a dark blue, and you know what this means. A shiver runs down your spine. You look at your dusty hands, and you feel the urge to say it wasn’t you, that you weren’t in control…

_But that would be a lie._

“let’s just get to the point,” he growls, and you are surprised by the pure rage in the statement. Your heart pounds, and, for a moment, fear spreads through you.

And then you grin.

You simply can’t help it; after all this time, it still enthralls you, still provides the very thrill you seek, no matter how frustrating.

“it’s a beautiful day outside,” he starts. “birds are singing, flowers are blooming. on days like this, kids like you…”

You know exactly what to expect, as if it is as natural as breathing. You jump up over the line of bones that shoved up from the ground, and you don’t bother to think of physics and how strange it felt to sort of float, suspending in air, because the next part is here, the tunnel of bones squeezing you through the narrow opening, and then the Gaster Blasters come to box you in. You dodge this all easily, like you’ve been doing it all your life.Sans looks almost concerned about the fact that you seemed to know what was happening, but it doesn’t matter, because now?

**It’s your turn.**

You assess yourself; you have your knife in your hand, seeming to burn with your desire to slash at the monster before you. This catches you a little by surprise, but you shrug it off. You take notice of the small bag you have slung over your shoulder, heavy with your inventory items. Peering into it, you see that it is full of hamburgers (Glamburgers, you correct yourself), a slice of pie that has quite the alluring aroma, and a steak that looks very much like that robot - Mettaton, you remember. Nodding to yourself, you can tell your health is full, so you slide your gaze back to Sans. You are in the body of Frisk, you notice as you look slightly up at the skeleton, and for some reason, this strikes you as odd. You shrug this off, too, and lunge forward with your weapon, knowing you won’t hit him, hardly trying. He moves out of the way easily.

“what?” he asks smugly. “you think i’m just gonna stand there and take it?” You smile at the comment, amused by it now. You prepare for the next attack, too well-versed in the patterns to have forgotten.Short bones seem to appear out of nowhere, and you deftly dodge them, jumping them like you would rope, timing just right to nail the landings, relieved your usual clumsiness isn’t plaguing you right now. It’s so easy, and you remember how much you had struggled, long ago, and you nearly laugh. You jab at Sans with your knife again, prompting him to dodge you again, explaining his story, one you’ve heard countless times before.

“our reports showed a massive anomaly in the timespace continuum. timelines jumping left and right, stopping and starting…”A blue attack now, mixed with normal: blue, white, blue, white, blue, white… You smile at how you had finally seemed to master this attack, slightly smug about it, as if you’d overcome a great obstacle. You swing out confidently, no health lost. He continues.

“until suddenly, everything ends.” This next attack almost catches you off-guard; you’d forgotten about this one, expecting platforms next. You curse yourself as your foot snags on a bone, poisoning your health slightly. You shake it off though; nothing to worry about. You make another attack toward him, and he dodges again, continuing his dialogue with a short, humourless laugh.

“that’s your fault, isn’t it?” All of your platforming and real-life balancing practice is finally useful, your clumsiness gone, and you jump on each foothold with ease, ducking before that part even appears, and you escape wound-free. You’re smiling; this is what you love, this challenge, the reward of mastering something that once seemed to impossible. The adrenaline reminds you how much fun this really is. You lunge forward once more, another miss. He keeps going.

“you can’t understand how this feels…” he says, as the second set of platforms appear, this one moving to the right, one you’d perfected some time ago. Stab, miss, dodge, attack. It is clockwork. You feel your memory of the order of the attacks slipping, and his words are drawing you in, like the first time you faced him, safe behind a screen, not even controlling it; yet it was you, then, and you know it now. But this is different; you’re actually here. Your smile falters.

“knowing that one day, without warning...it’s all going to be reset.” It’s more of those platforms, and it’s this one that sometimes catches you, the stickiness of the moving pieces catching you. You escape harm-free, and you sigh. His words, though, they sting. Heard them hundreds of times, you remind yourself, but you feel them pierce you anyway. You attack. He continues.

**Predictable; clockwork.**

“look, i gave up trying to go back a long time ago.” His words, his attacks and yours, they run together in blur you hardly focus on anymore. “and getting to the surface doesn’t really appeal anymore, either.” As you jump on platforms to evade the deadly Gaster Blasters, even though you already know the answer, you briefly wonder if that’s because he no longer has anyone to share the experience with, or if he ever wanted to go in the first place.

“cause even if we do...we’ll just end up right back here, without any memory of it, right?” His pupils disappear with this, and it hurts you, too. You cause that, you realise. Real or not, it’s a terrifying thought to explore, that you killed people out of curiosity, because you could, because you thought you should. You somehow dodge the monorail attack without damage, and you attack a little less confidently, with a little less effort. But is this it? Are you giving up?

**No.**

**You are determined.**

“to be blunt, it makes it kinda hard to give it my all.” Apathy, you remember. He isn’t lazy; he lack the will to try anymore. You feel your spirits dampen, but your determination remains unflinching, deep down, despite how you drag your movements, how you nearly trip up on the jumping time. But you’re alive.

“...or is that just a poor excuse for being lazy…? hell if i know.” You push away your thoughts, trying to bring your mood back, dodging the pocket bones easily. You keep attacking, your health high enough still to give you some confidence.

“all i know is...seeing what comes next...i can’t afford not to care anymore.” You remember he might know that, win or lose, he will die in the end, one way or another. You shove this thought away, dodge his attempt to crush you, and swing out, almost in rage at how his words are affecting you.

“ugh...that being said...you, uh, really like swinging that thing around, huh?” You relax a little; halfway there. “...listen. i know you didn’t answer me before, but...somewhere in there-”

You’ve heard this before, you know what he’ll say. You don’t want to hear it; you already feel worse than you ever had about this whole thing. You cut his words off, face burning with your guilt, lunging forward to slice at him savagely, like the monster you are. Your knife snags the fabric of his hoodie’s sleeve, slicing a hole in the article of clothing. He’s astonished, you can tell, and you take some kind of pride in that fact, before the guilt returns to try to suffocate you.

“Welp,” he says. “not one for conversation, huh? you should really learn how to wait your turn.” His next attack is familiar, but it’s so much stronger now, as if you angered him even more. You’re lucky you don’t trip and fall as he teleports you from sequence to sequence, yet you’re unhurt. You force the battle faster, and you pay no attention to the attacks, just his words as they hurt you more than any attack could.

“sounds strange, but, before all this, i was secretly hoping we could be friends. i always thought the anomaly was doing this ‘cause they were unhappy, and when they got what they wanted, they would stop all this.” Evade, check health, attack. “and maybe all they needed was...i dunno, some good food, some bad laughs, some nice friends.” Dodge, attack, still high health.“but that’s ridiculous, right?”

**You gulp.**

“yeah, you’re the type of person who won’t EVER be happy.” These attack are so much harder now, and you’ve lost more health, and you’re a little worried. But you shake that off and attack anyway.

**No going back now.**

“you’ll keep consuming timelines over and over, until...well. hey, take it from me, kid. someday, you gotta learn when to QUIT.” Evade, lose a little health, grimace, attack. “and that day’s TODAY.” Evade hit-free, attack. “‘cause...y’see...all this fighting is really tiring me out.”

Triumphant; evade perfectly.

“and if you keep pushing me...then i’ll be forced to use my special attack.” Evade, attack, grin.

**It’s coming.**

“yeah, my special attack. sound familiar? well, get ready, ‘cause after this next move, i’m going to use it. so if you don’t want to see it, now would be a good time to die.” You focus on dodging, and once you’re through, you see you have only forty HP.

Keep pushing forward. Attack.

“well, here goes nothing...are you ready? survive THIS and i’ll show you my special attack.”

**It begins.**

He throws you around violently against the floor and the walls, and then you expertly move in circles around the bones. He sends you through a tunnel and teleports you around, and then the Gaster Blasters chase you. For a moment, you are fearful as you dodge, but then you realise you’re alive. He can’t kill you. He huffing, out of breath.

**It’s over.**

“all right…” he says. “it’s time-”

“Time to wake up,” you say, making him pause.

“what…?”

“I’m not going to kill you,” you reply. “I’d feel awful. I mean, killing you now would make it real. You’re not real, and so I can’t kill you here. I can’t and I won’t.”

“but you have before.” You aren’t surprised.

“Yes,” you say slowly. “Once. Never again. I only really did it in the beginning because everyone was telling me I should.” You shrug. “Sure, curiosity was a small part of it, too, but it was mostly so other people would get off my back. ‘Sans is OP, you’ll never beat him.’ You were my challenge. But...when all was said and done? I...felt bad.” Sans is silent. You keep talking, suddenly unable to keep your emotions in check, unable to hold back everything you feel.

“I could never feel a true remorse for this- I mean, I feel bad, but it isn’t the same as if I were to kill someone that was real. It’s not the same at all. Of course, that doesn’t mean I wasn’t in the wrong. I am. I know I am. Real or not real, when you look at is as a situation, apply it to real circumstances, I’ve killed innocent people. I mean, I could understand the first monster I encountered alone, being fearful. Maybe killing some of those that were stronger, and then Undyne and Asgore, simply because they clearly wanted me dead. I do this in loads of games, killing everything, but that’s the purpose. Here? I didn’t have to, but I did. Tori, Papyrus, Muffet, you, Mettaton...none of you posed real threats. Tori wouldn’t have gotten far enough, Papyrus is too sweet… Yet I killed them, and maybe I flinched and felt sad, but I kept going.

“Honestly, though, how could I know? I mean, how could I know if you’re real? For all I know, you do exist, somewhere, and I’ve ruined all of your lives, countless times, all for the sake of dialogue changes. I do it all to see the differences, because I’m obsessive, because, in a way, I love you all too much to just let you go. Instead, I kill, I save, I explore. I reset, over and over and over, to weed out all of the secrets, all of the changes. I’ve spared you; I’ve killed you; I’ve saved everyone; I’ve destroyed everyone; I’ve saved some, killed some, saved one, killed one. I’ve been made of LOVE and love. I’ve done it all.

“I know what I’ve done. I know that it’s wrong. But I can’t take it back. It’s not real for me. Consequences for it aren’t real for me. Maybe Chara took over at the end of the post-genocide pacifist run, but that’s not real, either; that was against Frisk and it was in-game, and that doesn’t concern me.

“I always had a choice, and I was determined to make the bad ones. I accept it. I’ve been killed by you something like four hundred times, and I continue to die by you, even after I destroyed your world and then sold my soul to have it back. Maybe it’s a last-ditch effort to make up for it. Die by you a thousand times.

“But in the end, it’ll all reset, and no one will remember but me and Asriel, although you and everyone else has their quirky ways of knowing things, you particularly. But...one day...it will stop.” Sans looks surprised, but you’re only surprised he lets you keep talking; that he hasn’t killed you yet. “Oh, yes, one day, I’ll get bored of all this and leave you all alone. Will you end happily? Who knows? But one day, it will stop.”

“It always does.”

You sigh.

“I’m leaving now,” you decide. “This was...interesting. If there is a next time, though...I hope you stop me.”

Sans looks conflicted, like he wants to say something, and so the last thing you hear, faintly, before you wake at your desk, is:

“i forgive you.”


End file.
